


Hearing Problems

by monaboyd_archivist



Category: The Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-04-06
Updated: 2004-04-06
Packaged: 2018-04-11 13:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4438133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/monaboyd_archivist/pseuds/monaboyd_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dominic has always had selective hearing.  Now he?s just plain hearing things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hearing Problems

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Shirasade: this story was originally archived at the Monaboyd.net Archive, which was closed in September 2014 due to software issues and a lack of new submissions for several years . To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in October 2014. I e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this author, please contact me using the e-mail address on the Monaboyd.net Archive collection profile.

Dominic has always had selective hearing. He thinks that maybe it is something he was born with, some sort of eardrum deformity that is very rare and occasionally fatal. He is sure that it has always been there, but he never noticed it until he was about nine or ten. Even then, it was only small things, so he never paid it much mind.

It was always things like his mum telling him to take out the garbage, and Dominic hearing, “Go play video games.” When she came into the sitting room ten minutes later to find him valiantly defeating giant purple toads, she would berate him for never listening, and he would have nothing to offer but a blank look.

Later, it was with his teachers. “Be quiet and do your work,” they would say, but Dominic would hear, “Stand up and recite lewd limericks to the class.” _There once was a man from Nantucket …_

And then in college, it was worse. “Papers due next week,” became, “Papers have been cancelled.” “Get lots of rest before the test,” turned into, “Drink until you drop.”

The one aspect of his life that it never affected was his acting. He has always listened to his directors and fellow actors carefully, both on and off set, giving them a courtesy he offered no one else. He has never tuned them out, never replaced the words in their mouths with what he’d rather hear.

Except.

Except, recently. Recently, Dominic isn’t hearing things right. He knows he isn’t, knows that what he hears can’t be real, but that doesn’t stop him from hearing it.

He first notices it when he’s going over the script with Billy. They are rehearsing a scene between Merry and Pippin, and Billy is laughing because he has to practice flailing believably, and he’s doing a terrible job of it. Their heads are leaned close, their shoulders pressed together, and they are laughing bright and loud together. Dominic rests his cheek against Billy’s, and he can feel the tears of laughter that have squeezed themselves from Billy’s eyes. Billy is wheezing beside him, and there is no other sound in the empty trailer but his gasping and their mingled chuckles.

“Kiss me,” Dominic hears, but Billy hasn’t spoken, he’s just laughing, gasping and laughing. Dominic blinks, because he heard the words clear as a bell, even if he knows in the same breath that they aren’t real. He kisses Billy’s cheek anyway and Billy only laughs harder.

The second time it happens, he and Billy are filming a scene with Treebeard, and Dominic’s arse is hurting and the harness is chafing in all the wrong places. He is tired, and he thinks that his wig needs to be fixed, but the make-up girls don’t like to climb the ladders unless the need is dire. They are running the five millionth take of the scene, and they are cued, and Billy delivers his line with the slightest arch of an eyebrow.

“I want to touch you,” Pippin says suggestively.

Dominic swallows and frowns at Billy. “What?” he whispers. But then Peter is calling for the cameras to stop rolling, and Dominic blinks at the suddenly too-bright lights and wonders what he missed.

Billy is looking at him strangely. “For Chrissakes, Dom, we’ve run this scene at least ten times already, and you forget your line _now?_ ” Billy says, sounding aggravated. There is no hint of Pippin’s heated tone.

“Shit, I just …sorry, I zoned,” Dominic apologizes, swallowing the unwelcome lump in his throat. Peter is giving him a measured look, and he knows that the director is weighing whether or not to give them a break. But a break will just mean that they spend more time in the uncomfortable slings, so Dominic forces an apologetic smile and gives Peter a thumbs-up.

The third time it happens, they are at their favorite pub with Elijah and Sean and Orlando and Viggo, and Dominic thinks maybe he’s going insane. Because when Elijah heads for the bar to buy them a new round, Billy leans over and his breath tickles Dominic’s ear, and Dominic could swear he asks to be kissed. _Hardwetnow_ , Billy’s voice whispers.

“What?” says Dominic blankly, a little too loud, because he can’t believe that he heard correctly.

Billy laughs and shakes his head, but doesn’t repeat himself, brushing it off with a “nevermind.” Dominic stares a moment longer, and then buries his nose in his pint and tries to pretend that he’s not hearing voices.

The fourth time, they are at Sean’s house for a barbeque. They have all collapsed in the yard after a game of football, and Dominic and Billy are lying sprawled across one another. They are tired, their eyes are closed and their breath is slow, and they are both exhausted from a week of 4:00 A.M. dress calls and ready to nap right there. Dominic can feel the bass from the Elijah’s stereo through the ground, and it pounds in his chest. _Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-ba-dump-bump._

“Touch me,” Dominic hears, and he barely hesitates before his fingers are sliding over sweaty skin to clutch Billy’s hip, because it’s not real. Can’t be real. Billy doesn’t make a sound, doesn’t move, and Dominic pushes a few fingers beneath the waistband of Billy’s jeans. Billy’s nose is brushing Dominic’s temple, and Dominic’s chin is digging into his collarbone, and they are hot and sweating and touching …

“Hey, you two! Stop groping each other and come get your burgers!” Elijah calls from across the yard, and there is laughter in his voice. Ali’s high-pitched giggle joins him in the background.

Dominic withdraws all at once, suddenly awake and aware and blushing, because his ears have been misinterpreting things again. “Sorry,” he mutters to Billy’s wide green eyes and silent question. He climbs to his feet and offers Billy a hand, and if they stand a little too close for a moment Dominic tries to ignore it.

The fifth time, Dominic is almost waiting for it. Expecting it, at any rate, and he isn’t awfully surprised when it happens. They are on break, sitting alone in the hobbits’ trailer, talking about nothing in particular. Billy leans over Dominic to grab a bottle of water from the table, and his hand rests on Dominic’s shoulder for balance, and when he sits back it happens.

“Kiss me,” he says, but this time it doesn’t stop there. His lips keep moving, and Dominic isn’t sure what he’s really saying, because he can only hear the words in his head. “Touch me, taste me, lick me, hold me.”

Dominic finds himself staring at Billy’s lips, and now Billy is talking about something incredibly mundane and unarousing, like dirt, and how much dirt there is in New Zealand, and how it all seems to wind up under his nails. Billy’s hand hasn’t left Dominic’s shoulder, fingers gentle pressure through elven cloaks and hobbit clothes, and he keeps tugging irritably at one of Pippin’s curls with the other hand. Every so often, the smooth flow of his voice is interspersed by choppy little pleading phrases that stand out like ugly blemishes. _Kissmetouchmetasteme._

Dominic can’t take it anymore. “I plead insanity,” he says, by way of warning, and Billy can’t even voice his confusion before Dominic’s lips are crushed to his. It’s a clumsy kiss, too wet and too hard, and Dominic’s top lip gets pinched and their teeth clack together, but he thinks maybe it isn’t all bad. At least, he thinks, he’s gotten it out of his system, and now Billy can react however he wants, and they can go back to being normal.

When Dominic pulls back, he’s fully expecting Billy to be angry or confused or (at very least) shocked, or something equally unpleasant to handle. Which is why he’s surprised to see that Billy is grinning, and that’s when he notices that one of Billy’s hands is fisted in Merry’s hair, and the other is gripping the collar of his shirt.

“I was wondering,” Billy says matter-of-factly, “when you would stop day-dreaming and pay attention to me.”

Dominic wonders if he’s hearing what he wants, or if that’s really what Billy is saying. In the end, he decides that it doesn’t much matter, because the only thing that he’s ever listened to is what he hears. So he kisses Billy again, less rushed and less forced than before. This time, their lips line up right, and when he pulls away again it doesn’t matter what Billy is saying or what Dominic is hearing, because they’re both too breathless to speak.


End file.
